Texas Wins Abortion Law Appeal

On Oct. 31, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reversed much of Judge Lee Yeakel’s ruling blocking sections of a tough Texas abortion law.

This will now allow many of the provisions of the Texas Abortion Law to go into effect immediately.

The appellate judges ruled that the restrictions on doctors can take effect while the lawsuit challenging the law moves forward, according to the Associated Press.

In its 20-page ruling, the appeals court panel acknowledged that the provision “may increase the cost of accessing an abortion provider and decrease the number of physicians available to perform abortions.” However, the panel said that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that having “the incidental effect of making it more difficult or more expensive to procure an abortion cannot be enough to invalidate” a law that serves a valid purpose, “one not designed to strike at the right itself.”

Judge Yeakel’s ruling on preventing Texas from enforcing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol on drugs in cases where the woman has been pregnant between 53 and 63 remains in place. Doctors had testified that such protocols could be harmful towards women.

The abortion issue remains one of the most controversial and debated topics in American politics. What many on both sides of the issue failed to understand is that federal government doesn’t have the authority to force either position on the states. The people of the states are sovereign and never delegated authority over this issue to the federal government, as Tenth Amendment Center national communications director Mike Maharrey pointed out when Yeakel handed down his initial opinion. This issue needs to determined by the states for themselves.

Now, Pro-Choicers will cite the 14th Amendment as the linchpin of their argument. As the Tenth Amendment Center has address before, the 14th Amendment didn’t incorporate the Bill of Rights unto the states.

However, lets assume the Pro-Choicers are correct about protecting women’s 14th Amendment Rights. The Pro-Lifers could argue that they value and are protecting the 14th Amendment rights of the unborn child. Back to square one…

What many on both sides fail to understand that abortion really isn’t different from many other issues from health care, guns, marijuana, TSA, and hemp. None of these were ever meant to be handled by the federal government with a one size fits all approach. Neither side has the moral authority to force their view on people of sovereign states, who may disagree with them.

Some will argue that it is insane to have the states remain sovereign because they can go in all sorts of direction. The real insanity allowing Washington D.C. to direct more than 350 million people with a one-size-fits-all approach.